The Ritz, Whitworth Street West, M5 5NQ
The Ritz, Whitworth Street West, M5 5NQ
The Ritz, now known as the O2 Ritz Manchester, opened as a dance hall in 1927 and was subsequently listed in 1994. The Smiths played their debut gig here on the evening of Monday the 4th of October 1982. The evening was titled ‘An Evening of Pure Pleasure’ and was a student music and fashion show. The Smiths were supporting the headline act, Blue Rondo a la Turk, a successful pop jazz outfit.
At this point in time the Smiths line-up was Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Dale Hibbert on bass and Mike Joyce. Also appearing on stage was an old friend of Morrissey’s, James Maker. It appears James’ presence hadn’t been discussed in any detail before the gig. His role was to introduce The Smiths, in French, and then dance with some maracas within a small chalk circle that had been drawn on the floor.
Some accounts of the evening have described James Maker wearing pair of stilettos. He makes it clear in his biography ‘Autofellatio’ that he wore ‘a blue mohair suit and court shoes’.
The Smiths played their set on the floor in front of the stage having been given strict instructions by the headliners not to touch their equipment. Even at this early stage they had some dramatic intro music played prior to their appearance, Klaus Nomi’s ‘The Cold Song’.
The setlist was just four songs long, ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’, ‘Suffer Little Children’, ‘Handsome Devil’ ending with a cover of The Cookies ‘I Want a Boy For My Birthday’ although in his recent autobiography Mike Joyce mentions that the cover was dropped.
The gig appeared to go well though Johnny wasn’t impressed with Dale’s dancing whilst playing bass. How much this impacted the decision to let him go enabling Andy Rourke to take his place is debatable. Dale has written about his time in The Smiths in his autobiography ‘Boy Interrupted’. He makes it clear that as a father and husband with a young daughter he didn’t see The Smiths as a long term proposition, he had his sights on becoming a studio engineer.
It was after this gig that Joe Moss agreed to become The Smiths manager.
This wasn’t the first time Morrissey had appeared at the Ritz. On the 8th May 1978 he fronted local band The Nosebleeds with Billy Duffy opening for John Cooper Clarke and Magazine.
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